Believe
by FlakeGirl
Summary: All I can think is: Hmmm, is it attraction?    ...Or that burrito I had for lunch?   - Gabriella tries to convince Troy it's not just the paranormal he could understand if he would just try to believe. :D Total fluff. ONESHOT.


**AN: So maybe som eof you will find it pretty shit and maybe some of you wont. But I just wanted to do something for Halloween that was a little fun and I really had a good tim e putting together this cute one-shot. :)**

**I hope you like it though, and I'll be updating whiteTRASH. soon, although this year I'm also doind this thing called NaNoWriMo which starts tomorrow so I'm still gonna have a lot of stuff on my plate.**

**Anyway! Here it goes: **

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**Believe.**

So what do you do every Halloween? Get stuck going trick or treating with younger siblings? Spend time carving pumpkins with your family? Or maybe you always end up going to some really cool party?

Well, I don't have any siblings, my parents were out having a better time than me and there weren't any cool party's going on. And if there was... I probably only would have been invited out of pity or because my decidedly cooler friends were invited first. (Um, gosh, Gabriella, you're invite must have gotten lost in the post? - Uh, no-one uses the post anymore people! I know you lied to me in sophomore year that time!) *ahem*

Ummm.

So I hung out in my room (which is awesome, because it just so happens to be a newly renovated basement, by the way! And it means that my family dog, Skipper, is most definitely NOT ALLOWED to be down there, cuz he'll stink the place up and stuff) - and no I was not entirely lame and alone, kay?

Ahem. And so it was hallows eve. Halloween. And me and my best friend Troy are sitting in my basement watching programmes like, The Most Haunted:... and Ghost Hunters and we're basically cracking up at all of these people running around and screaming because they think that something had whispered in their ear or tapped them on the shoulder.

At one point, Troy was running around the room yelling, "It touched me! It touched me! I'm a victim of attempted ghoulish rape, FOREVER!" which pretty much had me in fits of laughter for what felt like around ten minutes straight.

Why do the people on those shows always ask the ghosts to touch them to alert them of their 'presence' anyway? Troy and I have decided that if we ever become ghosts and someone asks us to touch them we'll probably be all creepy and feel up someone's leg and just make everyone there very uncomfortable - which, by the way, sounds pretty damn hilarious while you're imagining Jenivive Winters from Spook Searchers be all, "Ahhh! I'm being molested by the un-dead!"

But then, after a while, of course, we became a little more calm and tired and leaning against each other whilst the TV goes on about how someone's performing a fake hanging in some graveyard to try and encourage 'poltergeist activity'. Or something. Lame. My dog, Skipper, could think of something more entertaining to watch. And he's asleep half the time anyway. Stupid dog. (I love him to pieces, I swear.) But then I'm sort of thinking along the lines of, 'God, if you've seen one ghost, lady, you've seen them all' pretty much as Troy takes my hand and holds it in his.

You know, I don't actually know why we do this because we're only supposed to be friends and all that, but it's just how we are. I mean, we don't really tend to hold hands when we're with the rest of our friends, hanging out, but if we're by ourselves or just walking side by side or something then it'll simply just happen. No big deal... Man, when Troy's ex-girlfriend noticed it one time though, she got _really_ upset about it. - It's not like we can help it, though. It's just one of those habits that you have with someone that you do so much, half the time you don't even realize you're doing it.

Do you know what I mean?

...Anyway, it's just me and Troy, like normal, hanging out, watching TV, holding hands, eating junk food... the regular.

That's when the unexpected happens.

The power shuts off.

I could have sworn that we both jumped in that exact same moment, letting go of each other, so shocked by our sudden blindness. So of course, the inevitable happens. It's as if, suddenly, all of those stupid things about ghost and demons and poltergeists on the TV that we were laughing at just a while ago... suddenly, they don't seem so funny anymore. I hate it. For a moment, I'm just stuck in my pitch-black basement, my parents are gone and I'm all alone, feeling very watched by something. On Halloween. I internally curse Jenivive Winters.

On the outside, all I can do is squeak out a very high-pitched, un-me-sounding, "Troy!"

I grapple to my left until my hand comes into contact with Troy's strong bicep. Instinctively, I latch onto him with my fresh fear. Never have I ever disliked the dark so much - and we don't' have the best relationship anyways.

Troy wrapped his arms around me and chuckled, "It's just a power out, Gabi - I'll go look for some candles and torches or whatever with the light from my cell phone." And like the mad-man he is, he actually started to stand and pull away from me.

"No!" I - embarrassingly enough, yes - squealed, "Are you crazy?" I spoke lower, the darkness quietening me, "It's basic horror-movie knowledge that you do not leave the defenceless girl all alone in the basement just as the power goes off!"

Chuckling quietly again, Troy relented, "Okay, okay - we'll go together."

By now I could make out his face some more as my eyes adjusted beginning to recognise the minuscule pieces of starlight leaking through the tiny spaces my windows allowed any natural lighting into the room. His eyes looked bluer than usual, too. All soft and humorous... and damn he looked so cute all looking after me and... uhhh. Ahem. _Anyway._

"Good", I said as we slowly walked towards the door, one of my hands gripping his, the other hand gripping his upper arm and Troy's' free hand was shining his iPhone ahead of us. Frankly, the light it gave off was remarkably crap, but I didn't say anything - It was better than no light at all, "after all," I continued, "this is my house. It should be me bravely willing to venture forward into the blackness to find... candles and shit."

"Hmmm, and yet..." Troy trailed off, grinning.

I released my grip on his upper to so I could hit him before returning to my previous position. As we began to climb the stairs that lead to the kitchen, I could feel the illogical panic begin to shoot butterflies into my stomach. What if we got to the top of the stairs and found out we weren't alone? If something was waiting for us? ..._No_ I told myself, _Troy's here. Troy will protect me._

But that lead on to another terrifying thought, _Oh God, Troy! What if it gets to Troy? I can't live without Troy! !_

I mean, I know that with all the sports and stuff that he does that Troy's strong and all that but that doesn't mean squat if there's lots of creeps and he doesn't know self-defence! It's true! Some self-defence teacher-lady-person told me so! And I don't know any self-defence either! ...Holy shit, we're gonna die!

Of course, when we reach the top of the stairs and wander into the kitchen, you know what happens?

Nothing. That's what happens.

I'm almost disappointed. Not because I actually wanted to have the un-dead roaming around my kitchen waiting to pounce on the innocent and living... but because I just knew that Troy would use this as a way to send me some nice sarcastic comments as the night went along.

Going through the kitchen: "Wait! Gabi, the toaster is trying to send me a message from the _other side…"_

Going upstairs: "Don't worry Gabi; I used to see ghosts all the time in my younger days... Casper the friendly ghost that is."

And: "Gabriella... Something just tapped me on the shoulder!"

Not to mention: "What was that! -Oh, it was just Satan. No biggie."

I eventually got a little irritated as we manoeuvred into my bathroom (if I took candles from my Mom's bathroom, she'd flip a shit. They're the only expensive ones allowed in the house), "Hey weren't you watching that documentary where that boy was all possessed-"

"Oh yeah, he _was_ possessed... Or maybe he's just a schizophrenic lunatic?"

"Ugh, you don't believe in anything, do you?" I bit out as we grabbed some candles from the shelf.

"Hmm, well I'd classify people who believe in ghosts under the same category as the ones that follow a religion and believe in a God."

"You have a sucky look on life."

"I'm just saying, you know, personally, that I believe more in ghosts then I do that a 600 year old man built a giant boat and magically got two of every animal on earth on board."

I yanked a box of matches out of his hands and lit one before using to light the two candles I'd set in front of me and then the other two that Troy held up. Holding on tightly to my candles and matches, I brushed past Troy, left the room and headed down the stairs. Okay, so I wasn't all that upset that Troy was picking on Noah and the Big Guy In The Sky and all, because, well, it was nothing new that he didn't believe in that stuff and I'm not even sure that I do anyway. Maybe it's because my parents go to church without me on Sundays, but what I was really afraid of was that he didn't believe in anything else. The thought just upset me for some reason. Did he really just not care about anything that could not be perfectly explained?

"Hey, come on now," he started as he followed me down the stairs, "you're not mad at me for saying that, are ya? That's not like you."

Turning into the kitchen once again I could most certainly agree that it was not like me to get upset because someone simply had an opinion and yes, Troy was more than entitled to have his own, but I just found annoying how he could simply brush things off like that.

I shrugged at him as we placed the candles on the breakfast bar between us and sat opposite each other on the high stools my Mom was so desperate to get, "But don't you have some kind of faith in anything? Like what about... fate, or karma, you know? Destiny and free will? Do you even believe in stuff like love?"

"Well that stuff's different. I mean you can't ever know if we're just subject to fate and destiny and shit - same goes for karma. And people fall in love every day."

"People say they fall in love every day. So? People also say they see ghosts and have messages from God every day. They believe right down to their core. Is there any scientific evidence that can state whether someone is or is not in love? And what does that even mean anyway? The difference between like and love? Isn't it meant to be this amazing incredible thing that changes your whole world around? What if-"

Troy silenced me mid-sentence by placing two fingers against my lips. It was such a shocking gesture that I actually wouldn't have been able to remember my sentence anyway.

"It's just love, Gabi," he said as he took his fingers away, raising an eyebrow in amusement, "it's common. It happens all the time," he sighed. And I could have sworn that was a sad kind of sigh, too. Deflated-sounding.

I frowned a little. It was weird, I mean seeing him look kind of hurt, I sort of just felt, like, really bad. I mean, it was as if my stomach and my throat had formed this big knot that would only be released if I could maybe convince Troy that, yes there was some hope in the world of falling in real, true, love, because without it then where would we be, right? But it made me feel worse knowing that I was the one that got him all thinking about it.

"Well, it wouldn't feel common if you were actually_ in_ love", I tried to convince him.

"Maybe it would feel common if the other person didn't love you back." he informed me. I hadn't even thought of it that way.

Suddenly I hear a skittering noise from the stairs that lead down to my basement, like something with long nails was wandering around down there and jump right off my stool in fright and squeal, "Oh my GOD!" - I have been squealing a LOT more than usual in this night than most, you must know. I really am not usually much of a squealer, like my friend Sharpay is whenever she gets remotely excited about anything.

Troy stood up too and put his arm around my shoulders, "uh, Gabi, it's just the door."

And sure enough, Troy nudges the door a little by stretching out his right leg and tapping it with his foot slightly so that it moves until it clicks shut and makes a remarkably similar noise to the one that I just heard. Although I could have sworn it wasn't quite the same. Yet, as I should have expected, this sent Troy back into good spirits as he grins down at me from his superior height.

And it's that grin that does something to me every time. It's just like my heart does this little flip thing inside of my chest and I really don't know why. Is it that I like him? You know... like that? I mean_, maybe_. I'm torn. All I can think is_: Hmmm, is it attraction?_

_...Or that burrito I had for lunch?_

I know that logically it can't be. It's been happening too frequently lately. And it was too much of a coincidence that it happened every time he smiled at me to be something like a heart murmur or whatever. It was in that moment that I realized that I really had like Troy for a long time. As more than a best friend. And that it was also probably the reason I got so upset about the whole 'not-really-believing-in-love' thing. What a mess. I looked straight into his azure eyes and got lost for a little bit, enjoying the feeling of one of his strong arms slung around my shoulders and pulling me closer and after a while I noticed that he was looking right into my eyes too. Could it be? I mean, if Troy was looking at me the same way I thought I was looking at him, did that mean-?

Those thoughts were stopped dead in their tracks when I heard a very low, loud, growl. Like a wolf or something... Coming from my basement. I felt both of us flinch away from the sound that broke our perfect silence while wrapping our arms extra tight around each other.

"Troy?" I whispered, "... we didn't leave the TV on... right?"

"Um..." Troy began, as quiet as me, fear lacing his tone for the first time that night, "technically it wouldn't make a difference Gabs. The power's off. Remember?"

We both backed away, still locked in each other's seemingly petrified embrace until we hit the back of a counter. Our eyes stayed firm on the door which hid the animal creating the beastly sound which had been conveniently shut when Troy moved it with his foot just a second ago.

I could hear it again. That skittering of nails against the wooden stairs, soon met with the heavy breathing of a wild demonic animal. Upon hearing this, my face was now buried into Troy's chest, chanting very low, "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh my holy _shit_."

"It's probably just..." Troy whispered, "the... the wood of the stairs... um, creaking... because of the temperature changing in the night so it's uh-"

He was cut off by a heavy growl and a fierce scratching against the door.

"Wood doesn't growl, Troy! Wood doesn't growl!" I whisper-shrieked.

It went quiet for a moment. No breathing. Nothing. Whispered quieter and lower than ever before: "D'ya think it's-"

Once again he was interrupted but this time by the handle of the door being pulled down by the other side followed frighteningly quickly by the slam of the door against the wall as it was flung open.

I think it's safe to say - we both screamed. Loud.

And embarrassingly enough, I do realize that I was still hyper aware of the fact that Troy had never been so close to me before. As we almost fell to the ground in terror, that is.

After screaming for a significant enough amount of time we stop. There is no wolf-hound zombie. Nor is there a demon dog anywhere to be seen. There is simply Skipper who must have woken up in the dark, gotten confused and ran into my room while we were getting candles and then tried to come back upstairs when he saw nothing there and as he attempted to leave he found out that he was in fact, trapped - well done, Troy - and was now looking pretty ticked off about it all. Understandably.

And upon staring dumbfounded at Skipper for another few seconds we both burst into hysterical laughter. I don't know how long we laughed for but after all that screaming the relief felt so good. Especially to be laughing with Troy. He looks even better when he does laughing than he does when he smiles. Which is damn impressive, I'll tell you now.

After we had calmed down from that, it seemed as if everything that had scared me from earlier just didn't matter anymore. So I snuggled up on the couch in the living room, Skipper snoozing at my feet, Troy's chest underneath my head. I poked Troy's stomach - not that it seemed that he could actually feel me doing so, it was that toned... not that I'm complaining - and lifted my head so that I could smile mischievously at him.

"So, uh, I don't know it if was just me but, uh, you seemed pretty scared back there."

Troy pursed his lips, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know, when Skipper was about to eat us? Admit it. You screamed in terror."

"Pshhh... I was only acting like that to humour you... I- I knew it was Skips the whole time."

"Sure ya did."

"..."

"Still don't believe in ghosts?" I asked, "because I bet if I asked you earlier you would have given it a second thought."

Troy shrugged, "I was in the moment."

"But," I insisted, "you can't deny you would have given it a chance."

"Okay. Maybe. Only cuz it's Halloween and you were all freaked out and then you got upset and I don't like seeing you all freaked out and upset so you just sit there and accept that I'd only give something as crazy as there perhaps being some kind of paranormal goings on because you're you, okay?"

"Ummm... okay?"

We just sat there for a moment.

"Why only me?" I asked him.

"What?"

"What you just said. You basically said that you wouldn't give anything like that a chance unless it was me. That's kinda random."

I watched as he twisted his lip a little uncomfortably and looked down, "Because," he began, "because you've already convinced me that crazy things can happen before. So, I guess... um... kudos to you. You're a miracle worker. The End." and then he just looked away. I could have sworn that whole sentence made no sense but obviously it did to him because then he started acting all squirmy and weird and not Troy-ish and confident and cool like usual. This meant something.

Okay, just think. What crazy thing have I convinced him of before? Errrr. Let's use the list we made earlier: Fate? Karma? Destiny? ...Love?

I didn't think I'd changed his mind on any of those fronts. But it was all I had.

"You might believe in the paranormal then?" I asked as nonchalantly as possible.

"I might," he rolled his eyes though.

"What about love then? Are there any changed views on that?" Yeah. Hard as I tried, even_ I_ knew that that hadn't sounded nonchalant.

He looked at me before answering a little longer than I would deem necessary, "Sure it exists. It's not fairy tales and rainbows. Like I said, there would be nothing special if you weren't loved in return."

The temperature in the room suddenly made my Mom's fancy thermometer explode on the side table.

Okay, no it didn't.

-But it sure felt like it could have.

I looked at him for a second longer, "Well... what if you just didn't know if that person loved you in return or not. Ever actually asked her?"

Troy chuckled at the fact that I had decided we were talking about him and not just people in that situation in general, "well, I know what she'd say." he looked a little sadder as he played with my hand; something that was supposed to feel so normal that suddenly felt so different while we were talking like that.

"You'll never know until you try," I said faintly, sort of forgetting where I was, _wayy_ too lost in Troy to notice or care.

"Like allowing myself to get freaked out by a dog scratching on a door?" he chuckled in a surprisingly soft voice.

"Like with something real." I insisted.

Troy bit down on his lip for a moment, internally debating, "I wouldn't know how... I mean, I'd need the right, the right..." he looked right at me, right at me, "given the, the, the perfect moment maybe..."

_So help me God I'm going to look like an idiot if I've got all of this wrong!_ I leaned closer towards him - which wasn't much closer, because we were already intruding each other's personal space a LONG time ago - and asked, "what if the perfect moment was right now?" I whispered.

Troy's eyes flickered to my lips long enough for me to easily notice, "Then I guess I'd be blowing the best opportunity I'd ever get."

Maybe it was the candles, or maybe it was the way he was making my face feel all kind of warm when he looked at my lips like that or maybe dammit, maybe it was just how blue his eyes were that night, but right then, I just shut my eyes, leaned forward... and kissed him.

And he was kissing me back.

There was no way that I would be able to recall a kiss quite like it. Soft and slow, with a hidden urgency desperately trying to rise to the surface. Lifting one of his hands, Troy cupped the back of my head, tilting it slightly, his fingers doing what felt like tying knots into my hair. I didn't care. My hair was messy from all the jumping around and screaming anyway. In response I returned the favour to him and knotted my fingers best I could into his hair, trying to see if I could bring him any closer. The kiss only broke for a second so we could get some air and then Troy leant back in and gently sucked on my bottom lip before slipping his tongue into my mouth - which was probably still open slightly with shock - and I am telling you now, when he just decided to use the opportunity of my already parted lips to start that, I mean, that was the kind of thing that I'd been waiting for. That was the kiss that all my other first kisses should have been like.

That was the only kiss in the whole world that mattered.

We parted for a moment to catch our breath again. I waited a little expectantly.

"Not exactly the Halloween, I expecting, that's for sure." he rasped.

"In a good way or a bad way?" I asked, biting my lip.

"A good way," he grinned staring at me in the eyes, "a very, very good way."

This time as he pulled me towards him he put his arms round my waist and I played with the hairs on the back of his neck and his face moved towards mine again and at last, we were kissing, again. Nothing else existed. Everything went black and it was just him and me and me and him and it was just... ecstasy.

Then the power came back on.

The phone made a little clicky sound and Skipper barked twice before running off to find his basket again as the light behind us in the kitchen came back on. _Oh no_, I thought, _maybe now everything will get awkward and..._

Troy ran his fingers slowly down the side of my face, making me shiver, "Are you okay with this?" he asked.

_What an idiot._

I was more than okay. So I leaned forward and kissed him again. I don't know how long we spent with our arms around each other, cuddling and kissing until my jaw was sore. I just wanted the night to go on and on forever and ever.

It was the night I started something new with my best friend. The night I almost peed myself because my dog entered the room. The night I made a cynic believe in love.

And you know what? I think if I can convince Troy Bolton that love is real on the night that is meant least for romance, then I can do just about anything. I guess it's not just the cheap, spooky kind of magic that this particular holiday can bring... It's the best kind. That, I can _defiantly_ believe.

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**AN: Hope you enjoyed! Please leave reviews!**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl .x.**


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